[Author’s note: As I write this in October, the second massive denial of service attack in two weeks threatening to take down significant sections of the internet has just ended. Could full implementation of Operation Safety-Net have prevented this?

Ongoing disclosures about the pervasive monitoring of email, voice and other network traffic remain an industry concern and major companies in the online ecosystem have been publicly identified as specific targets for non-consensual eavesdropping activity. As a result, both the general public and various technical communities have a heightened interest in implementing measures that could protect operational security and customer privacy.

Over the past year or so, messaging security and encryption has been increasingly in the spotlight. We now send and receive more data over the Internet than ever before, yet until recently, email messages have been typically transmitted in clear text. This lack of encryption allows any interested party with just a little know-how and some basic equipment to potentially intercept the content therein: they can read personal information, bills, social media notices, birthday invitations, promotional material and even access pictures of loved ones or other sensitive attachments.